After online acclaim ‘The Bunker’ goes to print

MATT MOOREJanuary 13, 2014

Five people freshly graduated from college, and all on paths that will lead to apocalypse for the world.

It’s not what most would expect as they prepare for their own futures but, said writer Joshua Hale Fialkov, it’s not every day five friends chance upon a mysterious bunker with warnings about a devastating future to come if ways are not changed and different roads taken.

Such is the premise of “The Bunker” by Fialkov and artist Joe Infurnari, whose work on the book has seen its popularity grow so much that they are jumping the digital divide to offer it in print through Oni Press.

Fialkov says the progression is natural given that there is a prestige to having a book sold in shops, but he says it’s about bringing an intriguing story to a new audience, too.

“We’re doing it backwards,” said Fialkov, though he was quick to add that first publishing the book digitally through Comixology and through its own website helped garner fans and critical accolades, as well as interest from television.

“It’s a book that Joe and I decided we wanted to do, a book entirely outside of the system,” Fialkov said, noting that it paralleled, in a sense, their own hopes in “knowing what your destiny is.”

With the success of the title digitally — five chapters are online at $1.99 apiece now — publishers expressed interest. Oni was picked because of its reputation for titles like the Scott Pilgrim books, “Whiteout” and “Queen and Country,” Fialkov said.

The 48-page first issue is set for release by Oni Press on Feb. 12, collecting all the previously-released digital chapters in full color and, in some cases, redrawn to fit the size of a standard comic book.

“When I got back into comics, prior to making them, Oni books were the ones I was always drawn to,” Fialkov said. “Their sensibility really matches what I am into.”